Two women from Kansas came out to these parts, and were overheard comparing
their impressions of the ocean.

Said one: “always thought the ocean would have much higher waves, and it would
sound more like real thunder.

To which the other replied:

“Maybe; but the ocean doesn’t seem as big as I expected.

*

The fishing weir was an old Indian
invention characteristic of New England. It consisted of wooden dams in the
rivers which served somewhat the purpose of a permanent fishnet; and large
settlements grew around those weirs, as modern cities in New England have grown
around their successors, the power dams, which have mostly been placed in the
same spots, and which are, in many cases, merely the weirs reinforced.
Cooperation of tribes in building and using these weirs was one of the factors
in bringing about, in New England, the world’s first democratic federation, the
Penacook, also called Pawtucket (falling river) from the weirs that were its
important distinctive feature. In the construction of the new building of the
New England Mutual on Boylston Street, an old Indian weir, some two or three
thousand years old, was uncovered, apparently damming up Muddy River and Stony
Brook at their confluence at that point, before the Back Bay had sunk below
water, old Shawmut (now Boston) would appear to have sprung up around this dam.
After tidewater flowed over the site, mud covered the dam . . . and preserved
it; the filling in of the Back Bay buried it deeper, and over that old Indian
invention was built the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Digging
foundations for the New England Mutual building uncovered the weir in 1940, and
an interesting background of ancient Boston was revealed.

*

A summer bus route that is not too well
known is the Houghton’s Pond route from Mattapan Square. Mattapan Square is
reached by trolley from Ashmont, Egleston, or Forest Hills Stations. Fare, 10˘
from Boston to Mattapan Square, 10˘ to the pond. The pond is a popular bathing
point in the Blue Hills Reservation, which is the largest single park in any
metropolitan area. The pond is otherwise known as Hoosickwhisick Pond.

*

If you are looking for a cheap tour of
Eastern Massachusetts, try the dollar-a-day tickets issued by the Eastern
Massachusetts Street Railway Company. These are good for the day of issue on all
cars and buses of that company in Massachusetts (10˘ extra to enter New
Hampshire or Rhode Island) except the express buses to Fall River. The ride is
good to Lynn, Salem, Beverly, Lowell, Lawrence, Haverhill, Newburyport, Quincy
Brockton, Taunton, Fall River, and many intermediate communities, not to mention
local bus lines in most of those cities.

Get on the E.M.S.R. routes at Haymarket
Sq., Everett, Arlington Center, Ashmont, Mattapan, Fields Corner, Forest Hills,
or Sullivan Station, get an all-day ticket from the conductor, and plan your own
tour from there on.

______

Sidis discusses
the E.S.M.R. in Notes on the Collection of Transfers, Chap. 6, and in many other chapters.